Systems and methods for reliable firmware update in tree-based wireless networks

ABSTRACT

Approaches for updating a firmware file in a network having multiple transceiver nodes and being capable of receiving and transmitting the firmware file include dividing the firmware file into multiple of chunks, each chunk being able to be included in a single data packet transmitted between two of the transceiver nodes; transmitting each of the chunks from the first one of the transceiver nodes to the second one of the transceiver nodes; transmitting a request message from the first one of the transceiver nodes to the second one of the transceiver nodes, the request message including information associated with the chunks that have been transmitted in step (b); and transmitting a responding message from the second one of the transceiver nodes to the first one of the transceiver nodes, the responding message including information associated with one or more chunks that are included in the request message but not received by the second one of the transceiver nodes.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 62/757,186 filed on Nov. 8, 2018, the entire disclosureof which is hereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to tree-based wireless networks,and in various embodiments more specifically to approaches for reliablyupdating a firmware file in such networks.

BACKGROUND

Recent developments of Internet and mobile communication technologiesprovide diverse multimedia services, which may be provided almostinstantaneously over vast distances. The proliferation of compactportable electronic devices such as notebook computers, mobile phonesand smart devices have necessitated deployment of such services, whichtend to be very data-intensive, over wireless networks.

One commonly used wireless network has a tree-based structure. Thisnetwork architecture is often deployed in device networks organized orgoverned by controllers. For example, tree-based wireless networks areoften used when a controller controls a group of network members (or“nodes”); each group member will be reachable via a path across thewireless tree, enabling a point-to-multipoint communication (P2MP) (suchas from the controller to the nodes) and multipoint-to-pointcommunication (MP2P) (such as from the nodes to the controller). Commonapplications include controlled lighting systems, city-wide automaticmeter-reading system etc.

Generally, a tree-based wireless network includes a collection (e.g.,thousands) of network nodes; each node includes a firmware file forperforming various functions. The firmware file is typicallyperiodically updated to, for example, provide additional functionsand/or update the operating environment for more complex softwareassociated with the nodes. Reliably updating the firmware filethroughout thousands of network nodes in the tree-based wirelessnetwork, although of the most important and most demanding activities inthe wireless network, remains challenging.

For example, referring to FIG. 1A, one conventional approach forupdating the firmware file is to “flood” the entire tree and broadcastan updated firmware file to all nodes thereon. Each node, upon receiptof the broadcast file, may re-broadcast the received file to the“down-the-tree” nodes. But because the broadcasts are not acknowledged,the updated firmware file may not reach some of the nodes.

Another conventional approach for updating the firmware file in thenetwork is by individual unicasting. For example, referring to FIG. 1B,each node in the network transmits the updated firmware file in aunicasting manner with acknowledgement. As a result, the probabilitythat the firmware file will be received by all nodes is higher than withnon-acknowledged delivery via broadcasting. But because the firmwarefile usually consists of a large amount of payload, it is extremelyinefficient to use unicasting to update the firmware file in thetree-based network. A long period of time (e.g., many days) may berequired for the firmware file to reach all the thousands of networknodes.

Accordingly, there is a need for approaches that can efficiently andreliably update the firmware file in the network nodes in a tree-basedwireless network.

SUMMARY

The present invention is related to approaches for efficiently andreliably updating a firmware file in a tree-based wireless network bybroadcasting the firmware file in the network nodes and allowing thenetwork nodes that transmit and receive the firmware file to communicateso as to ensure receipt of the firmware file in each of the receivingnodes. In various embodiments, the firmware file is divided intomultiple chunks (or “blocks”); each chunk is assigned with a sequencenumber based on its order in the divided firmware file and can beincluded in a single data packet for transmission from a network node toanother network node. In addition, each chunk in the data packet may bepreceded by a header that describes, for example, a type of the updatedfirmware file, a time stamp indicating the release time of the firmwarefile and/or a sequence number associated with the chunk. In oneembodiment, the data packet including the chunk and its associatedheader can then be broadcast from the root node to its associated childnodes in a transceiver cell. Upon receipt of the data packet, thereceiving nodes may determine whether the chunk contained therein is“new” (i.e., an updated version); and if so, the receiving nodes mayaccept the new chunk and schedule it for future broadcasting to itschild nodes in its associated cell.

To ensure reliability of the broadcasting (i.e., each node indeedreceives the broadcast chunk), in various embodiments, the parent nodeperiodically transmits to its child nodes a negative-acknowledgment(NACK)-request message indicating the types, time stamps and/or sequencenumbers associated with all (or at least some) chunks that the parentnode has transmitted. In response to the NACK-request message, eachchild node may identify the chunk(s) that is listed in the NACK-requestmessage but currently missing in the child node, and report the missingchunk(s) to the parent node using a NACK message. In some embodiments, atransmission approach involving drawing of a random time for the childnode to wait before it transmits its NACK message to the parent node isimplemented to minimize the number of transmissions of the NACK messagesfrom each child node to the parent node, thereby preventing a “NACKstorm” in the parent node.

In some embodiments, upon receipt of the NACK message indicating a listof missing chunks in at least one of its child nodes, the parent nodeadds the indicated missing chunks to its future schedule forbroadcasting. The future schedule may include the missing chunksidentified in the NACK messages as well as new chunks that have not beenbroadcast. In one embodiment, a scheduler logic that classifies thechunks into three states can then be implemented to determine the timingfor transmitting a new chunk and/or re-transmitting an old, missingchunk based on the states of the chunks.

Accordingly, various embodiments provide approaches to efficientlyupdating the firmware file in the network nodes by broadcasting thechunks of the firmware file in the wireless network. In addition,various embodiments ensure reliability of the broadcasting by using theNACK-request messages transmitted from the parent nodes to theirassociated child nodes and the NACK messages transmitted from the childnodes to the parent nodes in response to the received NACK-requestmessages.

Accordingly, in one aspect, the invention pertains to a method ofupdating a firmware file in a network including multiple cells, eachsupporting communication among multiple transceiver nodes therein andbeing capable of receiving and transmitting the firmware file, each cellincluding a parent node and one or more child nodes. In variousembodiments, the method includes (a) dividing the firmware file intomultiple chunks, each chunk being able to be included in a single datapacket transmitted between two of the transceiver nodes; (b)transmitting each of the chunks from the first one of the transceivernodes to the second one of the transceiver nodes; (c) transmitting arequest message from the first one of the transceiver nodes to thesecond one of the transceiver nodes, the request message includinginformation associated with the chunks that have been transmitted instep (b); and (d) transmitting a responding message from the second oneof the transceiver nodes to the first one of the transceiver nodes, theresponding message including information associated with at least one ofthe chunks that is included in the request message of step (c) but notreceived by the second one of the transceiver nodes.

The method may further include assigning a sequence number to each ofthe chunks based at least in part on an order of the chunk in thedivided firmware file. In addition, each of the chunks in its associateddata packet may be preceded by a header including information such as atype of the firmware file, a time stamp indicating a release time of thefirmware file, and/or the sequence number associated with the chunk. Insome embodiments, the information associated with the chunks in therequest message and responding message includes the sequence numbersassociated with the chunks. In addition, the method may further include,upon the first one of the transceiver nodes receiving the respondingmessage, storing the sequence number associated with the at least one ofthe chunks in a delivery queue associated with the first one of thetransceiver nodes for further transmission. In one embodiment, themethod further includes classifying each of the chunks in the deliveryqueue into multiple states based at least in part on a status of thechunk in a child node associated with the first one of the transceivernodes. Further, the method may further include determining a timing fortransmitting each of the chunks in the delivery queue based at least inpart on its associated state.

In various embodiments, the method further includes, upon the second oneof the transceiver nodes receiving the transmitted chunks, determiningwhether each of the received chunks is associated with a most recentlyreleased version of the firmware file. In addition, the method mayfurther include, upon determining that the chunk is associated with themost recently released version of the firmware file, storing the chunkin a database associated with the second one of the transceiver nodesand causing the second one of the transceiver nodes to transmit thechunk to one or more child nodes associated therewith. In oneembodiment, the chunks in step (b) are transmitted in a broadcastingmanner.

In some embodiments, the method further includes, prior to step (d),determining a time interval for the second one of the transceiver nodesto wait before transmitting the responding message to the first one ofthe transceiver nodes. The time interval may be determined based atleast in part on a number of the chunks included in the request messageof step (c) that are not received by the second one of the transceivernodes. In addition, each of the transceiver nodes may store exactly onecomplete version of the firmware file whose chunks are all received andat most one outstanding version whose chunks are only partiallyreceived.

In another aspect, the invention relates to a network system forupdating a firmware file in a network including multiple cells, eachsupporting communication among multiple transceiver nodes therein andbeing capable of receiving and transmitting the firmware file, each cellincluding a parent node and one or more child nodes. In variousembodiments, the system includes one or more network management systemsassociated with one or more of the transceiver nodes; the networkmanagement system(s) is configured to (a) divide the firmware file intomultiple chunks, each chunk being able to be included in a single datapacket transmitted between two of the transceiver nodes; (b) transmiteach of the chunks from the first one of the transceiver nodes to thesecond one of the transceiver nodes; (c) transmit a request message fromthe first one of the transceiver nodes to the second one of thetransceiver nodes, the request message including information associatedwith the chunks that have been transmitted in step (b); and (d) transmita responding message from the second one of the transceiver nodes to thefirst one of the transceiver nodes, the responding message includinginformation associated with one or more chunks that is included in therequest message of step (c) but not received by the second one of thetransceiver nodes.

The network management system(s) may be further configured to assign asequence number to each of the chunks based at least in part on an orderof the chunk in the divided firmware file. In addition, each of thechunks in its associated data packet may be preceded by a headerincluding information such as a type of the firmware file, a time stampindicating a release time of the firmware file, and/or the sequencenumber associated with the chunk. Further, the information associatedwith the chunks in the request message and responding message mayinclude the sequence numbers associated with the chunks. In oneembodiment, the network system further includes memory for storing adelivery queue associated with the first one of the transceiver nodes;the network management system(s) is further configured to, upon thefirst one of the transceiver nodes receiving the responding message,store the sequence number associated with the chunk(s) in the deliveryqueue for further transmission. In addition, the network managementsystem(s) may be further configured to classify each of the chunks inthe delivery queue into multiple states based at least in part on astatus of the chunk in a child node associated with the first one of thetransceiver nodes. In one embodiment, the network management system(s)is further configured to determine a timing for transmitting each of thechunks in the delivery queue based at least in part on its associatedstate.

The network management system(s) may be further configured to, upon thesecond one of the transceiver nodes receiving the transmitted chunks,determine whether each of the received chunks is associated with a mostrecently released version of the firmware file. In addition, the networksystem may further include memory for storing the received chunks in adatabase associated with the second one of the transceiver nodes; thenetwork management system(s) is then further configured to, upondetermining that the received chunks are associated with the mostrecently released version of the firmware file, cause the second one ofthe transceiver nodes to transmit the chunks to one or more child nodesassociated therewith.

In some embodiments, the chunks in step (b) are transmitted in abroadcasting manner. In addition, the network management system(s) maybe further configured to, prior to step (d), determine a time intervalfor the second one of the transceiver nodes to wait before transmittingthe responding message to the first one of the transceiver nodes. In oneembodiment, the time interval is determined based at least in part on anumber of the chunks included in the request message of step (c) thatare not received by the second one of the transceiver nodes. Further,each of the transceiver nodes may store exactly one complete version ofthe firmware file whose chunks are all received and at most oneoutstanding version whose chunks are only partially received.

As used herein, the term “chunk” refers to a logical partition of datathat is smaller than the firmware file and can be included in a singledata packet. In addition, the terms “approximately,” “roughly,” and“substantially” mean±10%, and in some embodiments, ±5%. Referencethroughout this specification to “one example,” “an example,” “oneembodiment,” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature,structure, or characteristic described in connection with the example isincluded in at least one example of the present technology. Thus, theoccurrences of the phrases “in one example,” “in an example,” “oneembodiment,” or “an embodiment” in various places throughout thisspecification are not necessarily all referring to the same example.Furthermore, the particular features, structures, routines, steps, orcharacteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreexamples of the technology. The headings provided herein are forconvenience only and are not intended to limit or interpret the scope ormeaning of the claimed technology.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer to the sameparts throughout the different views. Also, the drawings are notnecessarily to scale, with an emphasis instead generally being placedupon illustrating the principles of the invention. In the followingdescription, various embodiments of the present invention are describedwith reference to the following drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1A and 1B depict various conventional approaches for updating afirmware file in a tree-based wireless network;

FIG. 2 conceptually illustrates an exemplary tree-based wireless networkhaving multiple network nodes in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 3 conceptually depicts an exemplary tree-based wireless networkhaving a parent node and child nodes in a transceiver cell and anothernodes outside the transceiver cell in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates three states associated with each chunk of a firmwarefile in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary approach for updating afirmware file in the network nodes in accordance with variousembodiments; and

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary approach for minimizethe number of message transmissions from the child nodes to the parentnodes in accordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 2 conceptually illustrates an exemplary tree-based wireless network200 comprising multiple network nodes 202; each network node 202includes one parent node and one child node. In one embodiment, eachnetwork node 202 is a member of a transceiver “cell,” i.e., a discretegeographic region having fixed-location transceivers on, for example,lighting poles. A transceiver cell typically includes a “parent” node(e.g., node 204) and one or more child nodes (e.g., nodes 206-210). Inaddition, each of the parent and child nodes may include onetransceiver. The parent node is the “owner” of the cell node(s); a childnode may be associated with only one parent node at a time. In oneembodiment, the child nodes connect to their parent nodes via a“wireless tree branch.” The child node(s) in a cell are within the radiotransmission range of the parent node and vice versa. Typically, theparent node and its child nodes are within a one-hop distance from eachother.

In various embodiments, each node acts as both a parent node (definedherein as “DL”) and a child node (defined herein as “UL”). The DL nodeis an entity contained in a node that acts as a cell parent; and theother cell members are child nodes of the parent node located one hopaway from the DL node. Similarly, the UL node is an entity contained ina node and is a cell member “owned” by a DL parent in another node(e.g., one-hop distance away that acts as the parent).

The tree-based wireless network 200 may be constructed dynamically usingone or more conventional protocols and algorithms. In one embodiment,the network 200 is constructed as a spanning tree that interconnectseach network node via a unique path to the tree root node. The same pathmay connect the tree root node to a network node. In some embodiments,the network 200 is constructed as multiple spanning trees withappropriate identifiers per tree; each tree (and thereby its associatedidentifier) supports a unique path between the tree root node and anetwork node on that tree. Thus, a downlink data packet that“originates” from the tree root node (or a network management system)may traverse a path across the tree that includes a collection of thenetwork nodes wirelessly interconnected from the parent node of onenetwork node to a child node within the parent's cell (i.e., one hopaway). The destination network node can be reached via multiple hops.For a given tree, the path from the root node to the target node isalways the same; in other words, the path acts as a “virtual circuit”for a data packet to be delivered from the root node to a target node.The virtual circuit may maintain the in-order delivery of packets, butdoes not guarantee that all delivered packets will reach thedestination. Similarly, an uplink message may be delivered from a nodeto the root node via traversing a path therebetween. For example,assuming that nodes X, Y, Z are along the path from the node originatingthe message to the tree root node, the message may propagate in theuplink manner along the wireless branches—i.e., from the originatingnode UL (e.g., a child contained within node X) to its associated DL(e.g., the parent contained within node Y), then internally propagatefrom the receiving DL to the UL contained within the same node (e.g.,node Y), then propagate further up to the DL (e.g., contained withinnode Z) associated with the UL within node Y, and so on.

In various embodiments, each node contains two radio transceivers: oneused by the parent within the node to send and/or receive data packetsfrom the associated child node(s) and the other used by a child nodewithin the node to send and/or receive data packets from the associatedparent in another node. In one embodiment, the wireless tree network 200further includes a network management system (NMS) 212 to control one ormore gateways that act as tree root nodes to the tree-based network. Inaddition, each node 202 in the network 200 may include an individual NMS214 for performing various functions (such as broadcasting a receivedchunk of a firmware file 215 to its associated child nodes, transmittinga NACK-request message to its child nodes, transmitting a NACK messageto its parent node, etc.) as further described below. In one embodiment,an updated firmware file 215 is provided to the root node (e.g., node204) in the tree-based network 200. The NMS associated with the rootnode may then divide the firmware file 215 into multiple chunks (or“blocks”) such that the root node can transmit each of the chunks in asingle data packet to its associated child nodes. Upon receiving thechunks, the NMS associated with each child node is responsible fordelivering each of the chunks to its associated child nodes; thisprocess can then propagate throughout the entire tree network.

The NMS 212/214 may include or consist essentially of a computingdevice, e.g., a server, which executes various program modules toperform methods in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.In addition, the memory may include or consist essentially of one ormore volatile or non-volatile storage devices, e.g., random-accessmemory (RANI) devices such as DRAM, SRAM, etc., read-only memory (ROM)devices, magnetic disks, optical disks, flash memory devices, and/orother solid-state memory devices to store information associated withthe tree root nodes and network nodes.

As described above, in some embodiments, the firmware file 215 isdivided (e.g., by the NMS associated with the root node) into multiplechunks 216; each chunk is assigned a sequence number based on its orderin the divided firmware file 215 and can be included in a single datapacket 218 for transmission in the wireless network 200. In addition,each chunk 216 may be preceded by a header 220 in the data packet 218;the header 220 may include information, such as a type of the broadcastfirmware file, a time stamp (e.g., a GMT date and time, such as Nov. 6,2015, 08:00 GMT) indicating the release time of the firmware file 215,and/or a sequence number of the associated chunk in the firmware file215. In addition, each chunk may be propagated independently from otherchunks in the same version of the file 215.

In various embodiments, for each type of the firmware file, each node202 in the wireless network 200 holds exactly one complete version ofthe firmware file 215 and at most one outstanding version (i.e.,receiving in-progress) of the file 215. For example, the outstandingversion is a newer (or “updated”) version than the complete version. Inone embodiment, when the node receives a chunk of a newer version of thefile, but the previous version of the file is still incomplete (i.e.,not all chunks have been received), the node discards the chunks of theincomplete previous version and starts to collect the chunks associatedwith the new version for completing the new version. In addition, eachnode 202 may identify the newest version (i.e., the most recentlyreleased version) of the received chunks, and subsequently transmit themto its associated child node(s) regardless whether the most recentlyreleased file is complete or still in-progress. For example, referringagain to FIG. 2, the node 206 is a parent node of the node 224; assumingthat the parent node 206 has a complete fourth version and incompletefifth version of the firmware file, while the child node 224 has acomplete third version and incomplete fourth version of the firmwarefile (this may occur when, for example, the node 224 is disconnectedfrom the network 200 for some time), the parent node 206 may transmitthe chunks of the firmware file associated with the fifth version (asopposed to the fourth version) to the child node 224. Accordingly, eachnode 202, upon receiving or identifying the newest version of a chunk,may store the chunk therein and subsequently transmit the chunk to itsassociated child node(s) in its cell using broadcasting. The childnode(s) that receives the broadcast chunk may then determine whether thereceived chunk is the newest version it has, and if so, accepts thechunk and forwards it to the child node(s) it associated within in itsown cell.

It should be noted that not all the child nodes are able to accept thechunk. For example, some child nodes may miss the chunk due to atransmission error or a dynamic topology change in the tree structure(e.g., when the currently connected parent node broadcasted the chunkbut the child nodes were still connected to previous parent nodes thatare different from the currently connected parent node). In addition,some of the nodes may miss the broadcast chunk due to a “hidden terminalproblem.” For example, FIG. 3 illustrates a node A being a parent nodeand nodes B and C being the child nodes of node A in a cell 302; nodes Dand E are network nodes outside the cell 302. Typically, before node Abroadcasts a chunk of the firmware file to its associated child nodes Band C, node A may first determine whether the child nodes are “silent”(i.e., not transmitting or receiving any data packets); and if so, nodeA can then transmit the chunk to its child nodes B and C. But in somesituations, nodes D and E, which are not child nodes of node A, areactive; thus, transmissions from nodes D and E, while not detectable bynode A, can still be detected by nodes B and C, respectively. Thus,transmission collisions may occur in nodes B and C. As a result, bothnodes B and C may fail to receive the broadcast chunk from node A.

To avoid the hidden terminal problem and/or missing chunks in thereceiving nodes due to, for example, a dynamic topology change in thetree structure described above, in various embodiments, the parent nodesends its associated child nodes in the cell a “NACK-request message”periodically (e.g., every time interval, T_(NACK) (e.g., 5 minutes));the NACK-request message requests the child nodes to identify and reportto the parent node which of the chunk(s) indicated in the NACK_requestmessage is missing in the receiving child nodes. The NACK-requestmessage may be an independently transmitted message or incorporated intoa BEACON message. For ease of explanation, approaches for reliablyupdating the firmware file in the network nodes described herein assumethat the NACK-request message is transmitted as an independent message,but one of skill in the art would understand that the same approachesmay be utilized when the NACK-request message is incorporated into aBEACON message and are thus within the scope of the present invention.

In various embodiments, the child nodes, upon receipt of theNACK-request message, identify the missing chunks therein and reportthem to the parent node via transmission of a “NACK message.” In variousembodiments, it is desired to minimize the number of transmissions ofthe NACK messages from the child nodes to the parent node so as toprevent a “NACK storm” (e.g., too many NACK messages being received atthe same time) in the parent node. In addition, transmissions of NACKmessages may be scheduled to occur when the tree-based network isrelatively idle. As further described below, in some embodiments,scheduling transmission of the NACK message can be controlled by theparent node based on the NACK-request messages transmitted therefrom.

In various embodiments, upon receiving a list of missing chunks from itschild nodes, the parent node adds the list to its future schedule. Thus,the list of chunks in the future schedule may include the missing chunks(which are identified in a NACK message sent from at least one of itschild nodes) and one or more new chunks (which have not yet beenbroadcast). Referring to FIG. 4, to determine the timing fortransmitting the new chunks and re-transmitting the missing chunks, invarious embodiments, each chunk at the parent node is classified intoone of three states: (i) a “missing” state indicating that at least oneof the child nodes does not have the chunk, (ii) a “requested” stateindicating that a child node needs to broadcast the chunk, and (iii) a“transmitted” state indicating that the parent node has broadcast thischunk to the child nodes but a NACK message has not been received sincelast transmission. Typically, all the chunks in the in-progress firmwarefile are in one of the above-identified three states.

In various embodiments, based on the classified state associatedtherewith, the timing for transmitting each chunk can be determined. Forexample, when the parent's scheduler is invoked to put new data packetsin the delivery queue, the parent node may first select the chunkshaving a “requested” state; the parent node may then create a datapacket from each selected chunk and deliver the packets to a queue forbroadcasting. After the chunks are broadcast, the parent node may changethe state of the selected chunks to “transmitted,” indicating that thechunks have not been requested since they were transmitted last time.The “transmitted” state may be changed to the “requested” state at alater time. For example, while a broadcast chunk has been received byall child nodes that are currently associated with the parent node, anew child node may join the cell at a later time (e.g., one hour later)and need to broadcast the chunk to its associated child nodes. Thus, thechunk's state may have to be changed to “request” in order to be placedin the queue for broadcasting.

In one embodiment, the parent node sends a NACK-request message onlywhen all the following conditions are satisfied: (i) there are no more“requested” chunks therein; (ii) at least a predetermined time interval(e.g., T_(NACK)) has elapsed since the last NACK-request message wassent or at least a predetermined number (e.g., 50) of the chunks havebeen transmitted since the last transmission of a NACK-request message;and (iii) the parent node knows that there may be at least one receivingchild node that has not received one or more of the chunks (thus, if theparent node knows that all the receiving child nodes have received allthe chunks, there is no need for the parent node to send theNACK-request message).

The NACK-request message may include information associated with thechunks that have been transmitted by the parent node. For example, theNACK-request message may include a complete set of the sequence numbersassociated with all the transmitted chunks. In various embodiments, onlya subset of the sequence numbers associated with the transmitted chunksis indicated in a NACK-request message (e.g., for saving space). Thismay occur when, for example, the length of the NACK-request message islimited and the broadcast firmware file contains a large amount ofchunks. The parent node may thus reduce the length of the MACK-requestmessage by including only a subset of the sequence numbers in eachmessage and having different sets of the sequence numbers included indifferent MACK-request messages transmitted at different times. Toachieve this, in one embodiment, the parent node includes a databasemaintaining a cyclic pointer for indicating the sequence number of thelast chunk in the last-sent NACK-request message. Based thereon, theparent node can then include the sequence numbers of the followingchunks in a new NACK-request message. In a simplified example, there are100 chunks in the updated firmware file and the parent node has receivedand broadcast the chunks having sequence numbers {1-8, 9, 11, 13-20, 21,22, 23-40, 41, 44-47, 50-52, 54-60, 70-85, 86, 87, 89-100}. Assumingthat the cyclic pointer at the parent node points to the sequence number24, and that the NACK-request message has space for encoding six numbersonly, the parent node may transmit a NACK-request message having thesequence numbers of 25-40, 41, 44-47, 50, and adjusts the cyclic pointerto number 50 after transmission of the NACK-request message. Similarly,if the cyclic pointer indicates that the sequence number of the lasttransmitted chunk is 91, then the parent node may transmit the nextNACK-request message with the sequence numbers of 92-100, 1-8, 9, 11.

It should be noted that in some situations, the chunks are alreadytransmitted by the parent node but because there is no need for theparent node to receive a NACK message, the sequence numbers of thesechunks will not be listed on the NACK-request message. For example, whenthe parent node has already received a NACK message for a specificsequence number and the chunk associated therewith is currently awaitingretransmission, there may be no need to receive a NACK message for it.

As described above, upon receiving the NACK-request message from theparent node, the child node may respond by transmitting a NACK messageto the parent node. In various embodiments, the child node implements atransmission approach for minimizing the number of transmissions of theresponding NACK messages to the parent node and spreading the NACKmessages as equally as possible over a predetermined time period (e.g.,in the next T_(NACK) period). In one embodiment, the transmissionapproach starts by determining the number of chunks identified in theNACK-request message but missing in the child node. Based thereon,fractions of the missing chunks and non-missing chunks (FNMC) can becomputed. For example, if the NACK-request message includes the sequencenumbers 92-100, 1-8, 9, 11 (i.e., 19 chunks in total) and the child nodeis missing only chunks 1-3 (i.e., 3 chunks in total), then the fractionof missing chunks is 3/19=0.15, and the fraction of non-missing chunksis FNMC=0.85. The child node then draws a random time between 0 and(FNMC×T_(NAC)) before transmitting its NACK message to the parent node.Using this approach, the child nodes that miss more chunks may accessthe wireless channel before the child nodes that miss fewer chunks. Inaddition, this approach may significantly reduce the expected number oftransmissions of the responding NACK messages to the parent node. Forexample, in the above example, assuming that T_(NAC) is five minutes,there is a random time between 0 and 0.85×5=4.25 minutes before thechild node sends a response to the parent node. While the child nodeawaits the drawn time to elapse, it may realize that all its missingsequence numbers have been reported by other child nodes; as a result,the child node can cancel the transmission of its NACK message. In someembodiments, after the child node's waiting time has elapsed, the nodechild can update its NACK message to cover the sequence numbersassociated with the chunks that are still missing therein and have notbeen reported by other child nodes.

The transmission approach described above requires each child node to beaware of the NACK messages transmitted by other child nodes. This may beachieved by, for example, broadcasting each NACK message to all nodes inthe vicinity of the transmitting child node, or allowing other childnodes to “spoof” the NACK message when it is transmitted to the parentnode. Alternatively, the parent node may periodically broadcast messagessummarizing the sequence numbers associated with the missing chunks thatare indicated in the received NACK messages. Based thereon, the childnodes can update or cancel their NACK messages to the parent node asdescribed above.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary approach 500 forupdating a firmware file in a tree-based wireless network in accordanceherewith. In a first step 502, the firmware file is divided intomultiple chunks such that each chunk can be included in a single datapacket. In a second step 504, each chunk is broadcast from a node to itschild nodes in a transceiver cell. Upon receiving the chunk, the childnodes may determine whether the chunk is new (i.e., an most recentlyupdated version); and if so, the child nodes may store the chunk andbroadcast the chunk to their associated child nodes (step 506). If,however, the chunk is not new, the child nodes may discard the chunkwithout forwarding it to the child nodes (step 508). In variousembodiments, each parent node periodically transmits a NACK-requestmessage indicating information such as the types, time stamps and/orsequence numbers associated with all (or at least some) chunks that ithas already transmitted to its child nodes (step 510). In response tothe NACK-request message, each child node may identify the chunk(s) thatare listed in the NACK-request message but currently missing in thechild node, and report the identified missing chunk(s) to the parentnode using a NACK message (step 514). In one embodiment, prior to step514, a transmission approach involving drawing of a random time for thechild node to wait before it transmits its NACK message to the parentnode is implemented to minimize the number of transmissions of the NACKmessages, thereby preventing a “NACK storm” in the parent node (step512). In addition, upon receipt of the NACK message indicating a list ofmissing chunks in the child node, the parent node may add the indicatedmissing chunks to its future schedule for broadcasting (step 516). Inone embodiment, a scheduler logic that classified the chunks into threestates is then implemented to determine the timing for broadcasting anew chunk and/or re-transmitting a missing chunk (step 518).

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary transmission approach600 for minimize the number of message transmissions from the childnodes to the parent nodes in accordance herewith. In a first step 602, anumber of the chunks that is identified in the received NACK-requestmessage but missing in a child node is determined. Based thereon,fractions of the missing chunks and non-missing chunks (FNMC) can becomputed (step 604). In a third step 606, a drawn time that the childnode has to wait before transmitting the NACK message to its parent nodeis determined based on the fractions of the missing chunks andnon-missing chunks computed in step 604. In a fourth step 608, the childnode can cancel or update its NACK message to the parent node whileawaiting the drawn time to elapse. In a fifth step 610, after the drawntime has elapsed, the child node can transmit the MACK message (if notcancelled) to its parent node.

Various embodiments described herein provide advantages overconventional approaches for updating the firmware file in a wirelesstree network. For example, the approaches described herein allow atransmitting node to transmit a file even before it receives all thechunks of the file. This means that the transmitting node may transmitthe chunks in an out-of-order manner. In this situation, thetransmitting node can use the NACK-request message described above toinform all its receiving nodes about the chunks it wants to receive inthe NACK messages. This feature is not included in any conventionalapproach. For example, in the negative-acknowledgment-oriented reliablemulticast (NORM) approach, the transmitting node is required to have acomplete firmware file such that it can transmit the data in order.Thus, a receiving node that receives a chunk having a sequence number iknows that the NACK messages can be sent for all preceding chunks (i.e.,1 . . . i−1). And if a receiving node in NOAM receives the chunk ofnumber 5 before the chunk of number 4, the receiving node will indicatethat the chunk of number 4 is missing. In contrast, the approachesdescribed herein allow the transmitting node to receive, from its parentnode, the chunk of number 5 before the chunk of number 4, andsubsequently transmit the chunk of number 5 before the chunk of number 4to its receiving nodes. Because allowing the chunks to be distributedout of order may complete the file transfer more rapidly by avoiding thehead-of-the-line blocking, the approaches described herein are moreefficient than NORM.

It should be noted that approaches described herein for reliablyupdating a firmware file can be implemented in any wireless network thathas an underlying logical tree-based structure. In addition, theseapproaches do not require the tree to be static. If the network isdynamic, the tree structure may periodically change; the approachesdescribed herein can automatically adapt to the new network topology.For example, as described above, when a new child node joins the networkand needs to broadcast a chunk to its associated child nodes, thechunk's state may be changed from “transmitted” to “requested;”subsequently, a data packet can be created for the “requested” chunk anddelivered to a queue for broadcasting. Further, implementation of theNACK-request messages from the parent nodes to the child nodes and NACKmessages from the child nodes to the parent nodes may advantageouslyguarantee that each node connected to the tree network can eventuallyreceive the broadcast firmware file.

The NMS 212/214 described herein may include one or more modulesimplemented in hardware, software, or a combination of both forperforming the functions described above (e.g., steps in FIGS. 5 and 6).For embodiments in which the functions are provided as one or moresoftware programs, the programs may be written in any of a number ofhigh level languages such as PYTHON, FORTRAN, PASCAL, JAVA, C, C++, C#,BASIC, various scripting languages, and/or HTML. Additionally, thesoftware can be implemented in an assembly language directed to themicroprocessor resident on a target computer; for example, the softwaremay be implemented in Intel 80×86 assembly language if it is configuredto run on an IBM PC or PC clone. The software may be embodied on anarticle of manufacture including, but not limited to, a floppy disk, ajump drive, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magnetic tape, a PROM, anEPROM, EEPROM, field-programmable gate array, or CD-ROM. Embodimentsusing hardware circuitry may be implemented using, for example, one ormore FPGA, CPLD or ASIC processors.

The terms and expressions employed herein are used as terms andexpressions of description and not of limitation, and there is nointention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of excluding anyequivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof. Inaddition, having described certain embodiments of the invention, it willbe apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that other embodimentsincorporating the concepts disclosed herein may be used withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, thedescribed embodiments are to be considered in all respects as onlyillustrative and not restrictive.

What is claimed is: 1.-26. (canceled)
 27. A method of updating afirmware file in a network comprising a plurality of cells eachsupporting communication among a plurality of transceiver nodes thereinand being configured to receive and transmit the firmware file, eachcell comprising a parent node and one or more child nodes, the methodcomprising: (a) dividing the firmware file into a plurality of chunkseach smaller than the firmware file; (b) when the parent node has acomplete version of the firmware file, transmitting each of the chunksfrom the parent node to the child nodes of the parent node; (c)determining, at the child nodes of the parent node, whether the chunkcontains updated firmware data; and (d) only if so, causing the childnodes of the parent node to transmit the chunk to other child nodes. 28.The method of claim 27, further comprising assigning a sequence numberto each of the chunks based at least in part on an order of the chunk inthe divided firmware file.
 29. The method of claim 28, wherein each ofthe chunks in its associated data packet is preceded by a headercomprising information of at least one of a type of the firmware file, atime stamp indicating a release time of the firmware file, or thesequence number associated with the chunk.
 30. The method of claim 28,wherein the information associated with the chunks in the requestmessage and responding message comprises the sequence numbers associatedwith the chunks.
 31. The method of claim 30, further comprising, uponthe first one of the transceiver nodes receiving the responding message,storing the sequence number associated with the at least one of thechunks in a delivery queue associated with the first one of thetransceiver nodes for further transmission.
 32. The method of claim 31,further comprising classifying each of the chunks in the delivery queueinto a plurality of states based at least in part on a status of thechunk in one of the child nodes of the parent node.
 33. The method ofclaim 32, further comprising determining a timing for transmitting eachof the chunks in the delivery queue based at least in part on itsassociated state.
 34. The method of claim 27, wherein the chunks in step(b) are transmitted in a broadcasting manner.
 35. The method of claim27, wherein each of the transceiver nodes stores exactly one completeversion of the firmware file whose chunks are all received and at mostone outstanding version whose chunks are only partially received.
 36. Anetwork system for updating a firmware file in a network comprising aplurality of cells each supporting communication among a plurality oftransceiver nodes therein and being configured to receive and transmitthe firmware file, each cell comprising a parent node and one or morechild nodes, the system comprising: at least one network managementsystem associated with at least one of the transceiver nodes, the atleast one network management system being configured to: (a) divide thefirmware file into a plurality of chunks each smaller than the firmwarefile; (b) when the parent node has a complete version of the firmwarefile, transmit each of the chunks from the parent node to the childnodes of the parent node; (c) determining, at the child nodes of theparent node, whether the chunk contains updated firmware data; and (d)only if so, transmitting, by the child nodes of the parent nodes, thechunk to other child nodes.
 37. The network system of claim 36, whereinthe at least one network management system is further configured toassign a sequence number to each of the chunks based at least in part onan order of the chunk in the divided firmware file.
 38. The networksystem of claim 37, wherein each of the chunks in its associated datapacket is preceded by a header comprising information of at least one ofa type of the firmware file, a time stamp indicating a release time ofthe firmware file, or the sequence number associated with the chunk. 39.The network system of claim 37, wherein the information associated withthe chunks in the request message and responding message comprises thesequence numbers associated with the chunks.
 40. The network system ofclaim 39, further comprising memory for storing a delivery queueassociated with the parent node, the at least one network managementsystem being further configured to, upon the first one of the childnodes receiving the responding message, store the sequence numberassociated with the at least one of the chunks in the delivery queue forfurther transmission.
 41. The network system of claim 40, wherein the atleast one network management system is further configured to classifyeach of the chunks in the delivery queue into a plurality of statesbased at least in part on a status of the chunk in one of the childnodes of the parent node.
 42. The network system of claim 41, whereinthe at least one network management system is further configured todetermine a timing for transmitting each of the chunks in the deliveryqueue based at least in part on its associated state.
 43. The networksystem of claim 40, wherein the at least one network management systemis further configured to, upon receipt of the transmitted chunks bychild nodes, determine whether each of the received chunks is associatedwith a most recently released version of the firmware file.
 44. Thenetwork system of claim 43, further comprising memory for storing thereceived chunks in a database associated with the receiving child nodes,the at least one network management system being further configured to,upon determining that the received chunks are associated with the mostrecently released version of the firmware file, cause the child nodes totransmit the chunks to other child nodes.
 45. The network system ofclaim 36, wherein the chunks in step (b) are transmitted in abroadcasting manner.